


Can I Be Him?

by acchica2527



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Hosie, Legacies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-01-15 19:50:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18505885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acchica2527/pseuds/acchica2527
Summary: An Au post episode 1X12, with some elements from episode 1x14 (but not including MMF)Inspired by the James Arthur song "Can I Be Him"When Josie is struggling to sleep she likes to play her ukulele at the old mill, but who she finds already at the mill surprises her. Since admitting her past feelings for Hope, Josie can tell there is something different between them she just can't tell what it is.So what happens when old feelings get stirred up, some one gets a little burst of courage, and Dr. Saltzman allows the students to have a karaoke/open mic night?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Back again this time with a new story. If you all couldn't tell I'm very much a music person and this in another song inspired story. If you haven't listened to James Arthur's song "Can I Be Him" I definitely would recommend it, I got major Hosie vibes when I listened to it which is obviously why I got the idea for a story about it.
> 
> Like always, thank you so much for checking out my story, apologies for any mistakes and I hope you all enjoy!

Josie was walking to the mill in the early morning when the sun was barely peaking over the horizon. When she was restless or couldn’t sleep, waking up early from nightmares or never falling asleep at all she tried to do anything to distract herself. One of her favorite things to do was play her ukulele but for obvious reasons she couldn’t play it at 5:30am in her own room. So she would take a walk during the early hours in the woods and play at the old mill.

 

As she approached the worn down building she suddenly froze, the faint sound of a piano filled the air. She knew they had a piano at the mill, it was a bit old and had a few broken keys but it still worked. What caught her off guard was hearing someone playing it this early in the morning.

 

Josie approached the source of the music with caution, still unsure who could potentially be playing the instrument. As the Jazzy melody rung thru the air, Josie felt a warm and calming feeling take over her, it was as if the song itself was making her soul happy. As Josie took the final steps into the old mill she spots the source of the beautiful music and the musician in the back corner of the mill, their back turned to Josie. Immediately Josie stops dead in her tracks, she would recognize that auburn hair anywhere.

 

Before Josie could even think to stop herself, she calls out to the older girl, “Hope?”

 

Hope freezes at the sound of the familiar voice, she lifts her head up from the keys of the piano and without even turning, responds back, “Josie?” Josie starts to make her way closer to Hope when the girl finally turns around with a look of confusion plastered across her face, “what are you doing out here this early?”

 

“I could ask you the same question.” Josie states standing only a few feet away from Hope who had now fully turned around on the bench to completely face Josie. Hope just raises her eyebrow at the younger girl waiting for her to answer her question. Josie releases a sigh as she caves to answer the question, “I couldn’t really sleep and usually playing music helps so I come out here so I can play freely.”

 

A small smile crosses Hope’s face as she gives Josie a simple nod of understanding and approval. “What about you, why are you out here?” Josie asks taking another step closer to Hope.

 

“The same reason actually, couldn’t really sleep so I came out here. Well, first I went for a run which helped but my brain was still running a little bit so I decided to try and see if playing could help a little more.” Hope answered back, turning for just a moment to let her fingers run across the keys.

 

“I didn’t know you played.” Josie comments as she closes the distance between her and Hope, now standing on the right to the bench the girl sat on looking at the piano.

 

Hope shifts on the bench so she is facing Josie again, looking up at the girl standing beside her, “Yeah my uncle Elijah taught me and I mean my whole family loves music, they were raising me in the city known for Jazz so it was only natural I picked up some sort of instrument.” She answered nonchalantly.

 

“God what can’t you do?” Josie asks still looking at the piano, it takes her a second to realize she actually said those words out loud, she turns her head towards Hope who has a smirk on her face, “shit did I say that out loud?”

 

All Hope can do is laugh at Josie’s realization, Hope notices the slight tint on Josie’s cheeks but doesn’t address it, “Ha yeah, yeah you did but thank you I’ll take that as a compliment. But trust me Jo there is a lot of stuff I can’t do.”

 

“I doubt that.” Josie speaks softly, again not meaning to say those words out loud but this time she tries to play it off like it didn’t happen praying to god Hope didn’t notice. Of course Hope noticed, and of course she noticed how Josie had quickly bit her lip after those words escaped from her mouth. Trying to change the subject Josie asks, “So um what were you playing if you don’t mind me asking, it sounded so beautiful.”

 

Hope smiles at Josie’s question as she turns back to her original position sitting right in front of the piano letting her fingers fall onto the keys. She starts to play the melody again before she speaks, “It’s one of the first songs my uncle taught me on the piano, God Bless the Child.” Hope plays a few more notes before she stops moving her fingers against the keys, “you should hear it as a duet though I think it sounds even better.”

 

“Do you think you could teach me?” The question catches Hope’s attention as she shifts her gaze from the piano up to the younger girl, a little unsure if she heard Josie correctly. So Josie continues with a bit of a shy smile, unsure if she might be over stepping, “…you know the duet part.”

 

Hope’s small smile turns into a full on wide smile from ear to ear and Josie could swear she saw a bit of a gleam in her eye at her request, “Yeah sure.”

 

Hope pats the spot beside her to her righton the bench as she moves over a little so Josie could take a seat. Josie smiles back at Hope as she places her ukulele against the couch next to them. As Josie settles into her spot next to Hope, the older girl grabs Josie’s right hand without even a second thought, _wow hope has soft hands. How have I not notice that before with all the spells we’ve done together?_

 

Hope places Josie’s hand onto the keys moving the girls fingers on top of the specific ones she will need to play. Once she’s satisfied Josie’s hand is where it needs to be, Hope rests her own hand on top of Josie’s, pressing down on her fingers showing the younger girl which keys to play. Josie could feel her cheeks heating up by Hope’s actions and how closely they were seated to each other. Hope looks up at Josie with a sweet smile and Josie is pretty sure her face is getting even redder by the second as she smiles back at the older girl.

 

Hope keeps their hands there for a few more moments letting Josie get comfortable with the first few notes of the song. After a few more times of letting Josie play the keys on her own Hope’s hand moves to Josie’s wrist as she moves her hand down to a new set of keys. Again she places her hand on top of Josie’s teaching her the next few notes of the song and once she thinks Josie has got it down, Hope lets her practice the notes on her own. Once she is confident Josie has mastered this part she switches things up on Josie. Hope slips her hand under Josie’s hand so hers was now resting on top of Hope’s. Josie gives Hope a bit of a confused look and Hope just smirks back at her as she moves their hands back to where they had originally started. Hope plays the notes and Josie quickly understands what she was doing, letting Josie feel the timing of the melody and how quickly she needed to transition between the first set of notes she learned to the next. Hope repeats this processes with Josie for the next few parts of the song, helping her get comfortable with the notes for each section then guiding her thru the melody and the transitions. Slowly building it up as they put the pieces together.

 

Neither one of them really speaks much, just letting the sound of the piano fill the silence between them. It’s not like an awkward silence, there just isn’t this need for them to speak, they are both comfortable and even at peace with the others presence. It was like they were in their own little world and nothing else really mattered but them playing this piano.

 

Josie is pretty sure at this point her face is just going to stay a permanent shade of pink from how much she has been blushing during this little piano lesson. The two of them have never really shared such an intimate moment like this, yeah they have done magic together and held hands while casting spells but this was something completely different. This was a side of Hope Josie has never seen, a side she’s pretty sure no one else has ever seen either besides her family. Maybe she’s shown Landon this side before but Josie isn’t so sure.

 

They haven’t really shared that many moments when it was just the two of them, now that Josie thinks about it, the last time it was just the two of them was when they were picking up trash together after the football game incident. That was actually a really good day, up until her sister and dad were almost killed by a Gargoyle. Then Josie shut Hope out, after they had finally started opening up to each other and they actually felt like friends, Josie turned away from Hope. A bit of guilt sinks in as Josie thinks about what happened again, Hope had stated to open up after so long she was actually letting Josie in and how did Josie thank her, by pushing her away.

 

“Jo, you okay?” Hope asks with a look of concern on her face. She had noticed the subtle difference in how Josie’s hand felt on top of hers, she could tell something was troubling her and the smile that had been on her lips was now a pout.

 

“Yeah, sorry just kind of zoned out,” Josie answers with a slight nod, looking Hope in her ocean blue eyes. Josie can feel those butterflies in her stomach again, like the ones she used to get when she was younger when she first had fallen for Hope.

 

“We can stop if you want,” Hope offers still a little unsure if Josie was okay.

 

“No, it okay I promise I’m fine Hope,” Josie answers as she squeezes the older girls hand, “Besides I want to get this down. You mind playing your part, I want to see if I can hear how my part blends into the duet.”

 

“Okay,” Hope responds with a soft smile and a gentle squeeze back of Josie’s hand as she almost reluctantly pulls it away from the younger girl to place it on the piano keys in front of her.

 

Josie lets the melody fill her ears, as she tries to piece together where her part fits in, once she figures it out she lets herself listen just out of pure joy. As she continues to listen, her mind starts to drift again to thoughts of Hope as her gaze moves from Hope’s hands playing the piano to the older girls face. Memories of their recent spring break trip coming to the forefront of her thoughts.

 

It had been about two weeks since her big confession not only about how she had been the cause of her sister and Hope’s constant feud, but that she had once had feelings for the older girl. Josie would be lying if she had said she wasn’t terrified about how Lizzie and Hope were going to react, but both girls actually took her big reveal a lot better than she expected. Yes Lizzie was upset at her for keeping such a big secret and for basically being the cause for her and Hope never being friends but Lizzie felt horrible once she realized how she had made her sister feel. How her own actions had pushed Josie to go to such drastic measures to keep something like this from her.

 

Then there was Hope’s reaction, Josie was ready for Hope to hate her, to yell at her for literally destroying half of her room but she does none of that. She just looked at Josie with almost disbelief and maybe love? Or maybe Josie was just imagining that, maybe it was more like admiration, Josie wasn’t quite sure. Whatever it was, it was the exact opposite of what Josie had anticipated and it was like Hope didn’t even care about the fire as she had just simply asked her, _“you had a crush on me?”_

 

Josie wasn’t sure about anything between her and Hope anymore. It wasn’t in a bad way, nothing was awkward and they weren’t avoiding each other but there was just this new vibe between them since Josie told her about her old crush on her. Josie had no idea how to describe it. They were friends and they were definitely a lot closer now than how they were before, but it was just different. Thinking about those old feelings again, Josie is starting to remember why she had fallen for Hope in the first place and if she’s being completely honest she can tell those feelings are starting to resurface once again. She hadn’t looked at Hope in that way for a long time but after confessing those feeling and seeing Hope’s reaction, all the what ifs had started popping up in her mind.

 

Josie’s attention is pulled away from that rabbit hole of _“what ifs”_ by the sudden silence in the room as Hope finishes the song. She turns back to Hope who is already looking at her, a bit of a smirk of her face when she asks, “You good?”

 

“Yeah let’s keep going.”

 

Hope decides it would be a bit much to teach Josie the entire song in just one sitting, so she teaches her a few more notes before she has Josie practice everything she’s learned so far.

 

She let’s Josie practice on her own, just simply watching the younger girl as she attempts to play the correct notes at the right time. Hope sits in silence letting Josie try and remember or figure things out on her own, only making a comment when Josie asks for help.

 

When Josie starts to get frustrated because she can’t get this one sequence down, Hope simply laughs at the girls agitated sigh.

 

“Jo, you’re over thinking it.” Hope tells the girl beside her with a small chuckle.

 

“Ugh I don’t know why I can’t get this one part down.” Josie states clearly frustrated.

 

“Stop over thinking it just listen and feel the melody thru your fingers.” Hope tells her, as she moves her finger in front of Josie’s face like she was playing a piano that was floating there. Josie practically turns her full body towards Hope, a very skeptical look plastered on her face.

 

“Just humor me Jo, would you please” Hope tells Josie, once Josie turns back to the piano, Hope bumps Josie’s shoulder with her own.

 

This causes a small laugh to escape Josie’s lips, taking the edge off of her just a little bit. She takes a breathe and places her fingers back on the ivory keys. This time she tries not to over think it and just let’s her fingers dance across the keys like how Hope taught her. A smile forms again on Josie’s lips as she plays, letting the music flow. When she gets to the notes she been struggling with Josie doesn’t think she just lets herself play, and as she makes it to the next section of the song with no mistakes that smile gets a little wider. She turns to Hope, proud of her little achievement, and hoping to get a nod of approval.

 

With a smug smile on her face, Hope proudly states, “I told you.”

 

Josie just shakes her head at her, and bumps Hope with her shoulder, “Shut up.” Both of them starting to laugh at one another.

 

Hope has Josie practice her part a few more times and it seems Josie gets better with every attempt. Hope just watches as Josie plays her part on her own, she can see the confidence grow as Josie perfects her movements. Hope just smiles at Josie with a bit of pride as she finishes playing. Josie turns to Hope with her own smile on her face, happy with herself, but Hope just keeps staring at her without saying a word.

 

A bit curious but still happy with herself Josie releases a “What?”

 

“Nothing you’re just really good Jo, I think you’ve got it down.”

 

“Thank you Hope but I mean I’m pretty sure I’m no where close to how good you are.”

 

“Give yourself a little more credit Jo, you really are an amazing musician, it’s not really a surprise to me that you could pick this up so quickly.”

 

“You really think I’m amazing?” Josie asks sheepishly.

 

“Of course I do, do you not remember how loud everyone cheered for you at the talent show, you were incredible Josie.” Hope says with such confidence and so sincerely, Josie can feel her heart start to race.“Now, you think you’re ready to try it together for real.”

 

“Yeah let’s try this out.” Josie answers with a smile and a bit of determination in her voice.

 

They both get set, placing their fingers on their starting keys and once they were ready Hope simply nods at Josie to begin. Josie starts to play the first few notes and Hope seamlessly fills into the duet, creating such a beautiful sound. Josie just smiles wide as they continue to play, Hope was right, this does sound even better as a duet. They keep playing until Josie reaches the final notes Hope had taught her so far but Hope doesn’t stop. Josie had turned to see Hope’s eyes were shut as she starts to hum along to the melody. Her fingers gracefully stroking the keys as she plays. Josie just looks over at her in awe watching as Hope basically looses herself in the song. As Hope plays the final note, her hands remain still on the keys as her eyes slowly open.

 

“Wow,” Josie whispers in pure amazement still looking up at Hope.

 

Hope looks over at Josie a little embarrassed, she got so lost in the song she practically forgot she wasn’t alone, a slight blush making its way onto her face. Hope lets out a bit of a nervous chuckle shifting her attention down as she starts to fiddle with her fingers, “ha um sorry I got a bit carried away I should have stopped-“

 

Josie quickly cuts Hope off, “No Hope that was amazing.” Josie slips her hand between Hope’s hands catching the older girls attention. When Hope looks back up at her Josie, she’s met with a sweet smile on the younger girls face, “Thank you for sharing such a special song with me.”

 

“It’s not a problem Josie, I’m actually really happy I could share this with you, I’ve missed being able to play that song as a duet. So thank you.” Hope replies with a genuine smile, in this moment Hope was really happy and grateful the both of them had made their way to the mill this morning.

 

Josie just smiles back at Hope, as the two sit in silence, Hope’s gaze falling back to her hands where Josie’s hand was still between her own. A small smirk made its way onto Hope’s lips as she started to absentmindedly play with Josie’s hand. Once again Josie could feel her cheeks getting warm by Hope’s actions and the sudden realization at just how close they were sitting next to one another. “Hope?” Josie lets out almost as if she was taking a breathe.

 

Hope raised her head and turned her attention back to Josie, the two now only inches apart. All Josie would have to do was lean in just a little bit, Josie’s breathe catches when her and Hope lock eyes. Josie swears she noticed Hope was starting to lean inwhen all of a sudden the sound of both of their stomachs growling at the same time surprises them. The two had jumped back a little at the noise and once they looked back at the other the two girls bust out laughing.

 

“Umm I think it might be time for us to head in for breakfast,” Josie comments still laughing at what just happened, trying to ignore what else could have just happened.

 

“I think you’re right I mean it’s,” Hope starts as she looks at her watch, a bit surprised by the time, “Oh wow it’s 9:15am” the two of them had been playing the piano together for over 3 hours.

 

“Wait seriously?” Josie questions a bit shocked they had been out at the mill for so long.

 

“Yeah we’re lucky its a Saturday or your dad would be pissed we missed out first class,” Hope comments as she gets up from the bench,“You ready?” Hope asks reaching her hand out to Josie, a small smile on her face. Josie smiles back up at Hope as she grabs her ukulele with one hand and takes Hope’s hand with her other. Hope pulls her up from her seat effortlessly.

 

“Yeah lets go,” Josie answers as the two start making their way back to the school. Neither one really noticing they were still holding hands, not that either one of them would want to let go.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 is finally here! Sorry for the wait everyone, its a bit challenging to have multiple story ideas running through your head at once. Anyway as usual hope you all enjoy this new chapter and apologizes for any spelling and grammatical errors.
> 
> Alright here we go, thanks again for checking out my story and can't wait to hear what you all think!

The two girls were making their way back to school in comfortable silence, their hands still loosely intertwined and small smiles on their faces. They were about half way back to campus when Hope broke the silence with a question as they continued to walk through the woods.

 

“So if you don’t mind me asking, what’s going on that kept you from sleeping last night?” Hope asked, genuinely curious to what was bothering Josie. Josie had picked up on the hint of concern in Hope’s eyes as she had asked her question.

 

“Oh um, just nightmares again.” Josie answers hesitantly, looking down at the ground as she answered. It was technically true, it was because of a nightmare that Josie had struggled to sleep but she didn’t dare mention that Hope was apart of that dream.

 

“Are you dreaming about being buried alive again?” Hope asks looking up at Josie, thinking back on the traumatizing event.

 

Josie just nods her head as she thinks about her dream. It was like so many others, about her getting buried alive by her zombie mom, that struggle to breathe and to get free. This one was different though, Josie was rescued and pulled from her grave by Hope and her super squad. There was this sense of relief that had filled her in her dream when suddenly Hope was getting dragged away by zombies and Josie couldn’t do anything to save her. She started sinking into her grave like quicksand as she watched Hope get dragged away, nothing the two of them could do but call out to one another. Josie shakes the thoughts of her nightmare away before she speaks again.

 

“Yeah, I mean it doesn’t happen that often anymore, it’s actually pretty rare compared to when it had just happened but you know sometimes when I just have had a real bad day it bleeds into my dreams.” Josie tries to play it off. She wasn’t quite sure why this time her dream was so focused on her losing Hope, why it felt like they were being pulled apart from each other. That’s what kept Josie from sleeping, she couldn’t understand why she was dreaming about the older girl, they’ve been good and if anything they are closer than ever before. Was she just so terrified she was going to lose Hope now?

 

Josie was pulled from her thoughts as she feels a gentle squeeze on her hand, she turns her attention to Hope as she speaks, “I’m sorry Jos that really sucks. I know it’s not easy to get over something so traumatic.”

 

“It’s okay, I know eventually they will go away, just don’t know when.” Josie squeezes Hope’s hand with a grateful smile, she knows Hope understands what it is like. Then it hits Josie when she adds, “Thank you again by the way.”

 

Hope just looks at Josie absolutely confused, “Huh?”

 

Josie has to laugh a little realizing how confused Hope was, “You know, for saving me and…” Josie starts to say as she suddenly stops and releases Hope’s hand. Hope is still looking at her a bit curios as to what she meant. Josie simply pulls on the neck of her shirt as she starts to pull out the talisman from under her shirt, “for my birthday present. I just realized I never properly thanked you for either one of those things.”

 

Josie looks down at the talisman with a wide smile on her face as she plays with it in her fingers. Hope looks at Josie a little surprised a bit caught off guard with some revelations due to Josie’s words. First Hope is surprised by the fact that Josie was wearing the talisman this early in the morning, making Hope believe this meant Josie wears it even when she sleeps. The second part being she had never realized Josie hadn’t properly thanked her for any of it, for her present or saving her. It’s not like Hope cared for a thank you or felt like she was owed one but regardless it was nice to hear those words of appreciation coming from the younger girl.

 

When Josie looks up to meet Hope’s gaze again the Tribrid could only smile wide at her in response. “You don’t have to thank me Jo. I’m always going to be here when you need help even though I know you can take care of yourself, I promise I’ll always be here to help you fight your battles. As for the Talisman I wanted to give you something nice for your birthday, I’m just happy you like it and that it helped protect you.”

 

They both smile sweetly at one another for a moment before Hope shyly looks away and starts to walk again.

 

“What about you, you want to talk about whatever it is that kept you from getting a good nights sleep.” Josie asked after a few steps now curious what could be troubling the older girl.

 

Hope was looking down when she answered, “I got in a fight with Landon.”

 

“What happened?” Josie looked at Hope, a mix of emotions in her hearing the couple was having issues. She felt bad that Hope was upset but there was a piece of her deep down a little happy to hear they were having problems which quickly brought on a sense of guilt.

 

“Well, have you heard Roman got back yesterday.” Hope responded looking up at Josie and if it wasn’t a bit of a touchy subject she would have laughed at Josie’s shocked reaction.

 

Josie’s eyes had gone wide hearing Roman’s name, “Wait Roman as in…” Josie started thinking maybe she heard Hope wrong.

 

“My Ex, Roman, who’s mother killed mine, yup that’s the one…” Hope added a bit of emphasis on the yup with a pop on the “p”. She hesitated and rubbed the back of her neck nervously, not sure she was ready to tell all of this to Josie. As her eyes met Josie’s she realized she couldn’t back out now, but the look Josie gave her brought a bit of calm to Hope. Josie made her feel safe to open up and like everything was going to be okay.

 

“Yeah well I don’t know if you knew but he’s been doing a lot of recruiting work for you Dad and has been out doing other missions and tasks for him. I guess he’s back to report to your dad about some stuff then he’s taking a little bit of a break from traveling. So when he showed up, I was with Landon and of course this was the first time Roman and I have seen each other since everything happened so he came over to talk. Well when he came over, Landon got all possessive about me, and acted a bit jealous of me just talking with Roman. Landon tried to go all alpha male to make it clear to Roman that I wasn’t single.” Hope huffed out with a bit of frustration, she didn’t like this weird feeling like she was someone’s property to be protected. Thinking about everything that happened yesterday started to make Hope’s blood boil, still annoyed and pissed off but she tried to continue on without letting all of her emotions spill out.

 

“Then later on that day while we were in the library, Landon brought up the whole thing about Roman being back again. For some reason he doesn’t understand how or why I’ve forgiven him and he just kept pushing and pushing the subject. He even turned it on me and started complaining about what I put him thru with the whole knife situation and how I could do all of that to him when I was able to forgive the guy who had a part in my mothers death. He honestly really started to piss me off I almost lost it in the library but lucky for me and well everyone else, Lizzie was there and noticed I was about to lose it. So she basically broke up our argument and helped me let out all of my emotions out in the woods, actually behind the mill.” Hope recounted of yesterdays incident. Josie tried to think where she was when this all happened and how Lizzie had never mentioned any of this _, I’m going to have to ask her about this later._

 

Hope sighed again realizing this was becoming a bit of a long story, so she took a moment to try and reorganize her thoughts to better explain the whole situation. She took a deep breathe and went on.

 

“Basically long story short, Landon is upset with me for forgiving Roman about everything that happened with my mom while I had apparently put him thru so much torture for stealing the knife. And I’m pissed at him because he wouldn’t drop the subject even when I asked him to. I mean it’s frustrating that he couldn’t just stop even when I asked him and then for some reason he can’t seem to understand why I would forgive Roman. Especially with my family history with grudges and violence. I just-“ Hope stops walking as she takes a deep sigh, trying to recollect herself. Trying to find the right words to say with her emotions and thoughts running wild.

 

“Right now Landon is making me question my decisions, even though I know it was the right ones to make. I mean it’s not easy at times especially seeing Roman knowing what happened to my mother but I can’t turn back and just start hating him. I saw what vengeance did to my father, and as much as I love my father there are parts of him I never want to be like. I just, I don’t know, I get the whole not really wanting to see your girlfriends ex hanging around but it feels like Landon wants me to hate Roman. To hate him so much that I would want to kill him but that goes against everything I’ve been trying to do for the past few years. It goes against everything your father and people at this school have taught me.”

 

Hope can feel the tears in her eyes again, like the ones she shed last night, “Before my dad died I made a promise to him, I promised I was going to make him proud and to do right by our family name, and if I go down that path I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back. I don’t know if I can come back from that Jo.” Josie can see the pain and fear in Hope’s eyes just thinking about the what ifs. Before Hope can say or do anything else, Josie pulls her in for a tight hug. No words were needed, Josie just held Hope and let the older girl have a moment. When they finally pulled apart Hope wiped away her tears quickly before she spoke again.

 

“I’m sorry to be putting all of this on you Jo, you don’t need to hear about all of my relationship drama.” Hope apologizes as they start to walk again.

 

“No Hope it’s okay, you can talk to me about this, you can talk to me about anything. I don’t mind, especially if it helps get this unnecessary weight on your chest.” Josie tells her sincerely.

 

“Thank you Josie.”

 

“You don’t have to thank me, what are friends for right?” Josie stated a bit matter of factly.

 

“Right, friends.” Hope responds with a bit of, _is that disappointment in her voice?_ But Josie lets it go, and continues. “And hey if it helps at all, I completely understand your frustration, you aren’t the bad guy in this situation.”

 

“Not according to Landon.” Hope comments, still a bit upset with him and a bit hurt by his words.

 

“Hey.” Josie speaks softly as she grabs Hope’s wrist to stop the older girl in her tracks. “Just because you have the last name Mikaelson, that doesn’t automatically make you to be a villain, I know for a lot of people in their stories that’s the first word that comes to mind.” Hope’s head drops a little at the reminder of her families past, a bit of guilt and sadness overtaking her.

 

“Hey, Hope look at me.” Josie moves her hand under Hope’s chin and lifts the shorter girls head so she could look her in the eyes. Josie takes her hand to Hope’s cheek and she can feel the older relax into her touch. A soft smile making its way on Josie’s face as she runs her thumb across Hope’s cheek, wiping away a stray tear. Hope shuts her eyes at her touch, unable to look Josie in the eye’s, she simply sighs as the younger girl continues to speak, “Hope in my story when I hear the name Mikaelson I think of someone who is selfless, honorable, and compassionate, because that’s what came to mind when your dad asked us to help him save your life.” 

 

Hope’s eyes soften as she finally looks up at Josie, a little surprised by the younger girls words. Josie just smiles at Hope as she continues to speak, “In my story Hope, you are a badass tribrid who has saved this school and multiple students lives on several different occasions, including my own.”

 

Hope releases a slight chuckle hearing Josie call her a badass. Her attention quickly shifts though as she notices Josie’s other hand reaching up to the talisman around her neck at the mention of Hope saving her life. A slight smile starts to appear on Hope’s lips at the reminder that Josie still wears her birthday present. Josie notices Hope’s gaze had shifted to the necklace and she just smiles as she plays with the talisman in her fingers.

 

After a moment of silence Josie releases the talisman and lets her hand mirror her other, taking its place on Hopes cheek, Hope looks back at Josie’s eyes as she starts to speak again.“I could go on and on describing who you are in my eyes, but a villain or a bad guy has never been one of them. You are the Hero of my story Hope Mikaelson.”

 

Hope’s hands reach up to Josie’s wrists as she looks at Josie with a grateful smile, Josie pulls Hope a little closer to her so they can rest their foreheads against each other. Both of them shutting their eyes at the contact, finding a bit of peace and comfort by Josie’s actions.

 

Hope lets her hands fall to Josie’s waist, giving the younger girl a gentle squeeze before she pulls her in for a tight embrace. Josie releases Hope’s face so her arms can wrap around her shoulders, pulling her in closer to the taller girl. Josie shivers at the feel of Hope’s breathe against her neck as the older girl sinks into her, her face finding the crock of Josie’s neck. The two remained silent in each others embrace for a few extra moments until Hope finally broke the silence with a whisper that brought a smile to Josie’s face.

 

"Thank you Josie.”

 

————————————————————————————————————

 

The two eventually made it back to school and managed to sneak into the kitchen to get some food. The two parted ways once they made it back up to their dorm floor, small smiles still on their faces as they headed into opposite directions to their rooms. It was almost 10am when Josie finally makes it back to her room, where she finds Lizzie folding and putting away her laundry. Her sisters head shoots up to look at the door, as Josie walks in.

 

“Josie! Where the hell have you been!? I was about to send a search party out for you!” Lizzie practically shouts at Josie as she entered their room.

 

“Stop being so dramatic Lizzie,” Josie commented as she made her way to her bed to lay down. She was still trying to process everything that happened this morning, she was on a bit of a high with her emotions right now and just wanted to sort through everything.

 

Lizzie took a seat at the end of Josie’s bed and just stared at her sister waiting for her to say something, of course Lizzie being the impatient twin between the two of them she spoke before Josie even got the chance, “Well are you gonna tell me where you’ve been?”

 

Josie sighed as she pushed herself up so she could sit up against her head board to look at her sister. “I had gone out to the mill to play,” Josie said casually lifting up her ukulele she had rested next to her bed, she was contemplating telling Lizzie everything that happened this morning. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell her about Hope when she wasn’t even sure what everything this morning meant.

 

Lizzie just looked at her sister skeptically, “Okay I’ll bite, but that doesn’t explain why you were out there this long.”

 

Josie just shrugged her shoulders trying to play it off as best she could, “I just lost track of time, you know I didn’t bring my watch or anything out there with me.”

 

Lizzie just looks at her sister suspiciously, she knows she’s lying but she isn’t sure she wants to push the topic now or later. “Uh huh alright. If you say so.” She gives her sister one more look before she got up to go back to her side of the room to finish putting her clothes away. Josie picked up her ukulele and started to mindlessly strum a tune, her brain was running again. It had been a few minutes of silence between the two of them, the only sound coming from Josie’s ukulele, when Lizzie spoke up.

 

“Hey have you seen Hope yet this morning, she wasn’t down at breakfast either… Wait!”

 

Josie froze, _oh shit._ Lizzie turned to her and gasped before she exclaimed, “Were you hanging out with Hope this morning?!?!

 

“Umm I- I uh,” Josie stuttered.

 

“Oh my god, you were weren’t you!!” Josie let her head drop in defeat, there was no way she was getting out of this, and Lizzie just confirmed that as she dropped what she was doing, "okay yup, now spill, right now” Lizzie quickly jumped back onto Josie’s bed now sitting right in front of her sister.

 

_*sigh*_

 

Since Josie’s big confession, Lizzie and Hope have actually become really good friends, if Lizzie wasn’t with Josie she was most likely hanging out with Hope. It was safe to assume they were making up for lost time and this honestly made Josie happy. The only downside is, Lizzie is now more aware of when Hope is around, which means she notices how Josie acts around the tribrid. Lizzie has’t really brought up the topic of Josie’s past feelings for Hope before, thinking they were pretty much left in the past, but now it’s safe to assume the topic is about to be discussed at this very moment.

 

So Josie tells Lizzie all about this mornings events, how she couldn’t sleep so she went out to the mill, her finding Hope playing the piano, their intimate piano lesson, and their major heart to heart on their walk back to school. After she is done recounting the past few hours Josie pauses to let her sister process everything. Lizzie had this look on her face Josie wasn’t quite sure what it meant.

 

Finally Lizzie asks the question Josie knew was coming but still wasn’t ready for, “You still have a crush on Hope don’t you?”

 

“I um…I don’t know.” Josie answers avoiding Lizzies gaze, becoming a bit more interested in the hem of her shirt that her fingers were now fiddling with.

 

"What do you mean you don’t know?” Lizzie asks her a bit shocked with a hint of frustration.

 

“Well it’s complicated Lizzie, Hope is with Landon and-“ Josie tries to explain but Lizzie quickly cuts her off

 

“So? What does that have to do with you liking her? Just because she is with Landon doesn’t mean you can’t have feelings for her Jo.”

 

Josie stays silent for a moment, thinking about what Lizzie just said, and as much as she wants to deny it she really can’t. She has feeling for Hope but there was nothing she could do about it. “What does it even matter Lizzie, she’s got Landon. Besides she doesn’t even like me like that.” Disappointment coating her words.

 

Josie runs her fingers thru her hair as she shut her eyes and releases a sigh of frustration. She lets her fingers interlock and settle behind her neck and she takes another breath. Silence had filled the room and Josie could feel her sisters eyes on her, she slowly opened her eyes to confirm Lizzie was indeed staring at her.

 

“What?” Josie asked with annoyance.

 

“Jo are you freaking blind? Hope absolutely has feelings for you.” Lizzie stated looking at her sister like she was crazy.

 

“No, there’s no way.” Josie shook her head in disbelief.

 

“Umm okay, do I really need to spell it out for you?” Josie stayed silent and just stared at Lizzie indicating for her to go on, “Alright well, were you not paying attention to her reaction to your whole crush confession, I swear I thought she was about to admit she had feeling for you right then and there too.”

 

“She was just being nice.” Josie tries to dismiss her sisters argument.

 

“Okay, how about the fact she gave you that Talisman for our birthday. Or the fact that she always goes to you whenever she needs magical help. You are like the one person she seems to be the most comfortable with, I mean she literally fell asleep on your shoulder on our little spring break road trip. Then add in everything you said you two did this morning, that’s not just some casual friendship stuff that’s super intimate Jo, I’m telling you Jo she has feeling for you too.” Lizzie tells her with confidence.

 

Josie takes in everything her sister has said, thinking about all of these moments between her and Hope. She thinks about how there were clearly moments that would explain this feeling between the two that Josie had noticed before. _Could Lizzie be right, could Hope really have feelings for me?_

 

 _“_ Alright say you’re right and she does have feelings for me, nothings going to happen she’s still with Landon.” It felt like she was ripping her own heart apart saying those words to Lizzie.

 

“Do you want to be with her?”

 

“What?” Josie is for some reason a bit stumped by the question.

 

“It’s a simple question Jo, do you want to be with Hope?”

 

Again Josie pauses to process Lizzie’s words. Did she want to be with Hope? _I mean it’s what I’ve wanted since I was 13 and honestly nothing has really changed except now I’ve gotten to know Hope even better_. Now Josie knew what it was like to hear Hope’s laugh, now she knew what it feels like to hold Hope’s hand, now she knew what it looked like when Hope truly smiled, now she knew she never wanted to stop getting to learn about Hope. Now Josie knew she didn’t want to go another day not knowing what it would be like to actually be with Hope Mikaelson.

 

A smile reappeared on Josie’s face when she finally answers Lizzie’s question, “Yea, yeah I do.”

 

“Then fight for her!” Lizzie exclaims popping up to stand on Josie’s bed.

 

“Lizzie-“

 

“Jo listen,” Lizzie starts as she moves to sit next to Josie up against her headboard, “you told Hope you HAD a crush on her, if she knew you still do that could change everything.”

 

“But Lizzie,” Josie starts, she can feel potential tears welling up in her eyes as she speaks weakly, “what if I ruin everything?” Josie turns her head to look at her sister as a tear escapes to run down her cheek.

 

Lizzie wipes away the tear from Josie’s cheek and looks her sister right in the eyes, “What if you don’t?”

 

Josie lets herself think of all the positive what ifs, what if she doesn’t ruin everything, what if Hope does reciprocate her feelings, what if Hope wanted to be with her too? Josie can’t help but smile at the thought of being together with Hope, but it’s short lived as she starts to think how in the world she was going to tell Hope about her feelings.

 

“But Lizzie what am I supposed to do, I can’t just go up to her and be like ‘hey Hope, look I actually still have a crush on you, you should totally break up with Landon and be with me’ what do I do.” Josie points out sounding a bit defeated.

 

Then it hits Lizzie as she perks up as if a lightbulb just went off in her brain, “I have an idea,” Josie just looks at her sister with pure curiosity as Lizzie turns her body completely to face her, “Have you picked a song yet for open mic night tomorrow?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates in back-to-back days? Yup, so get excited folks. Alright wing-woman Lizzie is on a mission and it's time for open mic night!
> 
> Thank you all again for reading and for your kind words, glad you all enjoy it so far and hopefully you all will enjoy these final chapters!
> 
> Like always thank you again for reading and apologies for my potential spelling and grammatical errors. Hope you all enjoy.

The twins had spent the rest of their Saturday looking for the perfect song for Josie to sing at open mic night, once they finally decided on a song Josie was non stop practicing. Lizzie had put up a silencing spell on their room so no one could hear Josie practice, especially Hope. Since the trio were now friends there was actually a possibility of Hope stopping by, so the twins weren’t taking any chances.

 

Lizzie just watched her sister in awe, Josie had picked up the chords pretty quickly and it almost seemed like she some how already remembered all of the lyrics after only a few hours of practicing. Lizzie saw this look of determination and focus on her sisters face, she knew Josie could be a perfectionist at times but this was different. Lizzie knew if there was one thing that needed to go perfectly it was this.

 

Josie was so focused on practicing Lizzie decided she would just bring her sister back some food for dinner later, leaving her to practice freely on her own. As Lizzie walked through the halls down to the dinning area a smile made it to her face as she started thinking about the possibility of her now best friend and sister getting together. Lizzie wasn’t blind, she could see how happy the two of them would get whenever they were around each other. Contrary to popular belief, Lizzie wasn’t stupid and could be quite observant when she wanted to be. After the whole confession, Lizzie promised herself and to Josie that she was going to try and be a better sister.

 

Yeah maybe she wasn’t the best when Josie was dating Penelope but Penelope wasn’t that great to Lizzie either. It felt like she was always trying to put a wedge between the two sisters and that did not sit well with Lizzie at all. She tried to take Josie away from her and that just made Lizzie hate her, so when the two broke up yes Lizzie was happy but it made her hate the witch even more because of how badly she hurt her sister. Then all the nasty things she did to the two of them afterwards, Lizzie was never going to let Penelope Park date her sister ever again.

 

With Hope, Lizzie just knew if those two got together it would be different. They both complimented each other really well, Lizzie saw this other side of her sister come out when she was around Hope. She was more confident, she spoke up more, and she just seemed happier. Lizzie also saw a side of Hope she almost worried Hope had lost after all she had been through, Hope seemed a little more care free whenever Josie was around. She seemed to smile more, she laughed more, Hope was more open whenever Josie was with her. Lizzie didn’t fear Hope would drive the sisters apart, if anything Hope had been helping them stay together. After their road trip, Lizzie understood Hope better and she trusted Hope. The older girl knew the importance of family and Lizzie now knew Hope would never do anything to split up her family. Hope has protected her family, she cares about her family and now Lizzie wants her to become apart of her family. 

 

As Lizzie made the final approach to the dining hall she could hear an argument going on around the corner, she wasn’t really interested in the drama until she realized she recognized the voices, _Hope and was that Landon?_. Now that peaked her interest, as she made her way closer to them she could start to make out what they were saying.

 

“Hope come on why are you so mad at me, Roman is the one who-“

 

“Landon, seriously!? Quit bringing Roman into this! I don’t know why you can’t seem to understand that I’ve let that all go, and why you keep bringing it up when I ask you to stop! Why can’t you just respect the decision I made because it was my decision not yours.” Lizzie hasn’t heard Hope this pissed before, yeah the girl has had her outbursts but this seemed different.

 

“So you’re really just going to let it all go with him playing a part in killing your mom when I was tortured for taking a stupid knife?!” Lizzie rolled her eyes at Landon’s argument, _that Hobbit wasn’t tortured what is he talking about._

 

“Are you kidding me Landon? When were you tortured? Okay I get it, you have issues with small spaces but that wasn’t torture Landon. Yes I know I was bitchy to you and none of us trusted you for a good amount of time but can you blame us, you lied on several occasion and couldn’t give us an actual explanation as to why you took the knife. So yes were you mistreated sure but don’t try and argue with me that you were tortured because you weren’t… but Roman was. I actually tortured him.” Lizzie debated on listening in or not, she could tell this was supposed to be a private conversation (even if they were having it in the halls of their school). It honestly sounded like this was a conversation the couple needed to have but she was nervous it could get out of hand like it almost did yesterday. So she stays where she was hiding around the corner and just listens as Hope goes on.

 

“Yeah after my mom was murdered, my dad brought Roman back to our home to torture him, to kill him. I got my dad to leave the room so I could torture Roman all by myself, I made him bleed, I made him scream in pain because I had just lost my mother. My best friend, the grandmother of my future children, the person who was ALWAYS there for me. I wanted to kill Roman, I really did, I wanted him to suffer to feel every ounce of pain I was feeling. I was ready to stab him in the back with a dagger but I couldn’t kill him, I couldn’t because that’s not what my mom would have wanted. Especially knowing what Roman was put through I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t turn into one of the monsters my family were known for.” Lizzie’s heart broke for Hope, she had known a little bit about what happened to her mother and how Roman was involved. She knew Hope was in so much pain afterwards, it just never fully hit her by how much.

 

“So yes Landon, I eventually forgave Roman and I let it all go because I can’t keep holding that all in. Seriously out of anyone here I would have thought you would be someone to understand why I forgave him, or have you not payed attention to anything I’ve said about my family history.”

 

“I umm- I” Landon’s stuttering pisses Lizzie off, _you fucking idiot._

 

“Wow, this is just like what you did to MG.”

 

“What?” Landon sounds completely shocked by Hope’s words.

 

“What you did to MG during spring break, pushing him to do something he clearly did not want to do. You pushed him to do something you thought would be good for him because that was something you wished you could have for yourself. You pushed all of your crap onto him and now you are doing the same thing to me with all of your insecurities!”

 

“I’m not being insecure!” Landon tries to argue back and fails.

 

“Oh so you’re just being a jack ass for the fun of it, cool Landon.” Even with the snarkiness in her voice Lizzie can tell Hope was hurting.

 

“Hope that’s not what I -“

 

“No you know what I can’t deal with this right now.” Lizzie takes this as her cue to make her presence known. She rounds the corner to see tears starting to fall from Hope’s eyes which makes her pick up her pace. “I can’t with you right now Landon.”

 

“Hope, is everything okay?” Lizzie asks as she jogs up to the couple and pulls Hope into a hug not even paying attention to Landon.

 

“Lizzie we are in the middle of a-“ Landon starts but is cut off by the death glare Lizzie was giving him as she still held Hope in your arms.

 

“Well you sentient jar of artisanal mayonnaise, from what I heard it sounded like this conversation was over, so move along.” Lizzie spat back at Landon, holding Hope protectively from him. Hope just kept her face buried against Lizzie and her arms wrapped around her waist, letting the blonde twin deal with Landon. Landon sighed giving up and walked away down the hall. Lizzie slowly loosened her grip on Hope when Landon could no longer be seen and whispered to her, “He’s gone now.”

 

Hope takes a step back from Lizzie as she wipes away the tears that had escaped from her eyes, “So how much of that did you hear?” Hope asks softly, already assuming to herself that the younger girl heard everything.

 

“Enough,” Lizzie was pretty sure Hope already knew the answer so she didn’t want to deny anything but Lizzie wasn’t quite sure how much of the conversation she had missed before. Lizzie could tell Hope didn’t want to talk about the argument so she quickly changed the subject, “I was going to go grab dinner, want to come?”

 

“Yeah sure.” Hope answers with a nod and the two head off to the dinning hall.

 

The two girls manage to eat in comfortable silence for awhile until Hope speaks up. “Hey Lizzie, where’s Josie at?” Hope questions a hint of concern on her voice. Lizzie smirks at Hope’s question, taking note of how her sister was on the older girls mind.

 

“She’s taking a nap, I guess she didn’t get much sleep last night, she usually plays at the old mill when she gets restless so she was pretty tired and ended up falling asleep.I was gonna bring her some food back when we were done.” Lizzie didn’t necessarily need to lie, she could have just told Hope she was practicing for open mic night tomorrow, but Lizzie wanted to test something out. She observed Hope’s reaction to her words, the mention of Josie playing at the old mill brought a small smile to Hope’s face that didn’t last long. It was almost as if it was like a reflex just at the mention of Josie’s name and the warm memory of the two from this morning. Lizzie smiles to herself as she noticed the glint in Hope’s eye, _oh yeah, she’s totally got it bad for Josie._

 

“So speaking of my sister,” Lizzie starts still a small smirk on her lips, “How have you two been? I mean you guys are like good right, no awkwardness since the whole confession thing and now us being so close, everything is good yeah?”

 

“Yeah, I mean everything great. I really think we are in a good place.” Hope answers genuinely with a smile. Lizzie can tell Hope was probably thinking about her sister right now and that just made her more determined than ever to make sure the two of them got together.

 

So Lizzie just smiles at Hope as she responds back with a “Good, I’m so happy to hear that.”

 

When the two girls eventually finish their meal and Lizzie was about to head off and make a plate for Josie, she quickly turns to Hope who was still sitting at the table to ask one last question, “Hey you’re going to open mic tomorrow night right?”

 

Hope hesitated, “I don’t know Lizzie, I’m not really sure if I want to be somewhere, where Landon can try and ambush me into talking with him.”

 

Lizzie’s smile quickly dropped, “What? Oh come on Hope, you’ve got to come!”

 

Hope was about to argue when Lizzie continues, “Come on Hope, you can’t let Landon stop you from having a good time. You know it’ll be fun, I’m pretty sure Kaleb and MG are performing which will be pretty amazing.” Lizzie pauses letting Hope think about it for a moment, when she can tell Hope is starting to teeter towards a yes she throws in one last comment to seal the deal. “You know Josie’s going to be singing tomorrow right?”

 

This catches Hope’s attention causing her to perk up a little, Lizzie just smirks, “Come on Hope, you can’t miss out on Josie performing and I know she would love for you to be there.” Lizzie catches the slight tint in Hope’s cheeks at the mention of Josie wanting Hope to see her perform. _Yup she’s coming._ Lizzie felt proud of herself for convincing the tribrid but she needed verbal confirmation from the older girl.

 

“So are you coming? Don’t make me drag you out of your room tomorrow night.”

 

Lizzie’s final comment gets a laugh out of Hope as she smiles back at the blonde twin, “Okay yeah I’ll be there.”

 

“Perfect, okay I’ll see you later Hope.”

“Night Lizzie.”

 

————————————————————————————————————

*THE NEXT NIGHT*

 

So far open mic night had been a success. They had used the same space they had used for the talent show but made it a little more casual. Instead of it feeling like an auditorium, Dr. Saltzman had tables and chairs set up so students could sit, eat and study while others performed. It honestly made it feel like you were at a coffee shop or bar setting, just chilling out while people sang. Once in a while someone would sing/play that would catch everyone’s attention. Causing them to watch in awe or bob their head to the music and have fun to what they were playing. They had set up a mini stage for the students to sing and perform on, they had some extra guitars for them to use and at the side of the stage Dorian sat at the piano ready to play incase anyone needed some help.

 

The twins had claimed a table with the boys sitting on the opposite side to them, Kaleb and MG were performing after Josie and Rafael was just there for moral support. Josie was sitting next to Lizzie, anxiously waiting for it to be her turn and for Hope to show up.

 

“Jo enough with the leg bouncing, I swear you are going to cause an earthquake if you keep going like that.” Lizzie teased her sister trying to get her to relax.

 

“Sorry I’m just anxious, are you sure this is going to work? Hope’s not even here, what’s the point of me going up there.”

 

Lizzie could tell her sister was about to start rambling so she quickly grabbed her face between her hands and turned her head towards her to get her full attention. “Josie breathe, Hope told me yesterday she was coming, and I already warned her I would drag her out of her room to get her butt down here if I needed you. I told her you weren’t going on until 8:45 and it’s only 8:15 so relax she will be here. I’m pretty sure you are the only one she cares to see perform so she probably doesn’t see a point being here too early.” Josie sighs as she tries to calm herself down. Lizzie can still tell her sister was still on edge so she tries to reassure her.

 

She bumps her shoulder against her brunette twin, “Hey if it makes you feel any better, if she isn’t here by 8:30 I’ll go drag her butt down here for you, okay?” Like she had managed with Hope yesterday her comment gets a laugh out of Josie. Josie just smiles sweetly at Lizzie, grateful to have her by her side and to have her back.

 

About 10 minutes later, Lizzie notices Hope standing in the doorway scanning the room, looking for them Lizzie assumes. Lizzie taps Josie’s leg to get her sisters attention before she whispers to her, “Hope’s here.” Josie’s whole mood changes as she shifts her attention to the doorway, her eyes meeting with Hope’s just as she finds their table. Wide smiles making its way on both of their faces as Hope quickly makes her way to their table causing the twins to stand up and greet her. Lizzie pulled her in for a quick hug then she turned her attention to Josie, who smiled at her shyly before pulling her in for their own hug.

 

“I was getting worried there Mikaelson, thought you were actually going to make me drag you down here.” Lizzie comments to Hope as the three took their seats, Hope taking the empty seat next to Josie. Hope quickly gives the guys across from them a wave and hey before answering Lizzie.

 

“Sorry, lost track of time for a minute there, but trust me there was no way I was missing this.” Hope looks to Josie with those final words, causing another wide smile to appear on Josie’s lips.

 

They all turned their attention back to the stage as they listened to the next few students perform. They were all pretty good, nothing too special that really grabbed your attention though, which might have been why Hope’s attention kept shifting to the brunette twin sitting next to her. When the last performer before Josie took the stage, Hope noticed Josie starting to fidget with her hands, like she often did when she got nervous. Without even thinking Hope places her hand on top of Josie’s catching the younger girls attention. As Josie looks up at the older girl, Hope slides her hand between Josie’s, similarly to what Josie had done to her yesterday at the old mill. Hope takes Josie’s right hand into her left, she smiled at Josie as she interlocks her fingers with hers. Josie looks at her a bit confused but grateful at the same time. Hope leans in to whisper in her ear, “Don’t be nervous, you’re going to be amazing, just like the last time you took the stage in here.”

 

Josie can feel her cheeks starting to get flush, as Hope pulls away still looking at her with those gorgeous blue eyes. Josie is pretty sure her heart was about to beat out of her chest, Josie can’t really find any words to say back to Hope, so she just smiles sweetly back at the older girls and squeezes her hand as a silent thank you. Josie was ready to lose Hope’s soft touch after that but Hope didn’t let go. She held Josie’s hand through the entire performance and just as the song was ending Hope squeezed her hand as she leaned in once again to whisper in Josie’s ear, “You’ve got this.”

 

This time as Hope pulls away and their eyes meet again, Josie softly says, “Thank you.” Which got an immediate response back from Hope in the form of a wink, and dear lord Josie was about to melt. Josie just stared at Hope, with a small smile while Hope looked back at her with that signature Mikaelson smirk. I swear this girl is going to be the death of me. Josie comes back to reality at the sound of applause as the girl before her finishes singing.

 

“Alright Jo you’re up!” Lizzie says excitedly as she hands her sister her guitar. Josie stands up and smiles at her friends who start to cheer her on. Her eyes meeting Hope’s once again as she gives her a wide smile and now Josie is in this weird space of calm and nervous all at the same time. Hope calmed her, made her feel safe and that everything was going to be okay, but she was nervous because she just wanted to be perfect for Hope. She gave the group one last smile before she went to take the stage. 

 

Hope just watched as Josie walked up to the stage and prepped for her performance, that wide smile never leaving her face until she hears someone call out her name, “Hope?” _Oh fuck, come on, no not right now._

 

“Hey Hope, can we talk please?” Landon asks taking the seat at the end of the table next to Hope.

 

“Leave me alone Landon, I don’t want to talk.” Hope responds, keeping her attention on Josie, watching her discuss a few things with Dorian before she walks over to the mic.

 

“Hope come-“

 

“Hey, thrift store Hobbit, would you please shut up. My sister is about to sing.” Lizzie whisper shouts at him before turning her attention back at Josie.

 

Josie steps up to the mic and turns to Dorian, she nods at him just before she starts to strum out the first few chords. She turns back towards the crowds as she begins to sing.

 

_You walked into the room and now my heart has been stolen_

_You took me back in time to when I was unbroken_

_Now you're all I want_

_And I knew it from the very first moment_

_'Cause a light came on when I heard that song and I want you to_ **_play_ ** _it again_

 

Josie’s strumming becomes a little louder as Dorian joins in on the piano.

 

 _I swear that every_ **_note_ ** _you_ **_play_ ** _, you wrote them for me_

_Like it was a private show, but I know you never saw me_

_When the lights come on and I'm on my own_

_Will you be there to_ **_play_ ** _it again?_

_Could I be the one you talk about in all your stories_

_Can I be him?_

 

Hope recognizes the song pretty quickly, she’s heard it before but she noticed something was a little off. The lyrics should be “I want you to **sing** it again” and “I swear that every **word** you **sing** ”. _Why was Josie changing the lyrics ever so slightly?_ Josie and Hope’s eyes meet as Josie continues on with the song.

 

 _I heard there was someone but I know_ **_he don't deserve you_ **

**_If you were mine I'd never let anyone hurt you_ ** _, no, no_

**_I wanna dry those tears, kiss those lips_ **

**_It's all that I've been thinking about_ **

_'Cause a light came on when I heard that song and I want you to_ **_play_ ** _it again_

 

Hope’s breathe gets caught in her throat when Josie sings these lyrics. Josie has this sincere look on her face as her eyes never leave Hope’s, and the older girl just knows, Josie is singing this song for her. After everything that happened yesterday, this song wasn’t just some random coincidence, Josie picked this song for her.

 

 _I swear that every_ **_note_ ** _you_ **_play_ ** _, you wrote them for me_

_Like it was a private show, but I know you never saw me_

_When the lights come on and I'm on my own_

_Will you be there to_ **_play_ ** _it again?_

_Could I be the one you talk about in all your stories?_

 

_Can I be the one_

_Can I be the one_

_Can I be the one_

 

Josie releases her guitar and pushes it to her side as she takes a hold of the mic. Letting her voice be the focus as she sings acapella, letting her voice go on these incredible vocal runs and holding on to notes. She shut her eyes as she put everything she had into the song.

 

_Oh, can I, can I be him?_

_Won't you_ **_play_ ** _it again?_

 _Oh, when you_ **_play_ ** _it again_

_Can I be him?_

_Oh,_ **_play_ ** _it again, yeah_

 _Oh, when you_ **_play_ ** _it again_

_Can I be him?_

 

Her guitar back in her hands Josie plays again as she sings the final part of the song, looking right into Hope’s eyes.

 

 _I swear that every_ **_note_ ** _you_ **_played_ ** _, you wrote 'em for me_

_Like it was a private show, but I know you never saw me_

_When the lights come on and I'm on my own_

_Will you be there, will you be there?_

_Can I be the one you talk about in all your stories_

_Can I be him?_

_Can I be him?_

_Can I be him?_

_Can I be him?_

 

As Josie finishes the song, the room erupts into applause, and just like at the talent show Josie receives a standing ovation. But that’s not what Josie cares about, all she cares about is Hope’s reaction. When she locks onto Hope, she’s not quite sure to make of her reaction. Hope’s not clapping and cheering like she had for Josie at the talent show, she was still seated in her chair. There is a tear running down her face, a hint of a smile on her lips, and this look in her eyes like her brain was running a hundred miles an hour. She’s not looking up at Josie and that makes her heart stop for a minute and Josie can feel that panic starting to creep in as she makes her way off the stage.

 

Lizzie noticed the change in Josie’s demeanor as she starts to walk back to the table, she follows her sister’s gaze and looks down at Hope, who has her face in her hands. Before Lizzie can ask Hope if she was okay, the older girl quickly gets up from her seat and heads out of the room.

 

“Hey Hope wait!” Landon calls out to her as he tries to catch up, just as Josie makes it back to their table.

 

With heartbreak in her eyes Josie just looks at Lizzie, “Did I just ruin everything?”

 

Quickly shaking her head Lizzie grabs her sister’s hand, “No, trust me, you didn’t.” Lizzie turns her head to the doorway for a second before she speaks again. “You just dropped a major truth bomb on her Jo, she’s got to process all of it okay.”

 

“Maybe I should go talk to her.” Josie starts to feel that panic again but Lizzie stops her placing both of her hands on her shoulders.

 

“Hey, just give her a minute okay, let her have some time. Trust me she will come back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yes I know and I apologize to be leaving you all on a cliffhanger but trust me it will be worth it later on. BTW if you haven't heard James Arthur's song "Can I Be Him" go listen to it now! Or look up the female covers of his song to get a better feel of Josie singing for Hope!
> 
> Anyway thank you all again for checking out my story! Comments and ideas for this story or new stories are always welcomed and appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright it's finally here, the final part to this story. Sorry it took so long, I literally wrote and rewrote this part at least 3 times trying to make it perfect. Honestly at this point I don't even know how good this is going to be but I hope it's good enough and doesn't disappoint.
> 
> Like always thank you again for checking out my story and for all the love. Apologizes for any spelling and grammatical errors and of course I hope you all enjoy!

Hope tried to catch her breath as she made her way outside, she needed fresh air, she needed space to think. Hope’s brain was spinning _, did that really just happen,_ did Josie really just confess that she has feelings for her.

 

Hope was just in a state of disbelief. When Josie admitted to her about being her childhood crush she couldn’t bare to lose, Hope thought her feelings for her were long in the past. It hurt Hope a little knowing once upon a time the two of them could have been together because Hope had once felt the same way, then life got in the way. It brought up so many “what ifs” about their past but right now she was just grateful to have Josie in her life at all.

 

This truth bomb Josie just dropped though, it changed everything. If she was being honest with herself, Hope’s pretty sure she never stopped caring about Josie and she’s pretty sure everyone knew she had a soft spot for the younger girl. It just seemed though for the longest time the universe didn’t want the two of them to be together. Every time it felt like she was ready to let the girl in, something or someone got in the way of that.

 

Like right now, what was Hope supposed to do, she’s still technically was with Landon. As mad as she is with him right now, is she ready to break up with him? She knows she cares about him but does she love him? She knows he’s been someone really important in her life but is he someone she can’t live without? Hope lets her mind drift back to their fight from the other day, was she overreacting or was this a valid reason for them to break up. He had made her doubt herself, made her out to be the bad guy and overall just made Hope upset. That’s not what you’re supposed to do in a relationship, you’re not supposed make the person you care about miserable or cry themselves to sleep. They aren’t supposed to make you feel bad about yourself. That person is supposed to lift you up, they are supposed to support your decisions or try and guide you down the right path. They may not agree with you but that’s when it turns into a discussion not an argument. They are supposed to make you feel loved, not make you feel like you are some bad guy.

 

Hope’s thoughts start to wander again and her thoughts fall on beautiful brown eyes. She thinks about the sweetest smile and the most beautiful voice she’s ever heard. Hope thinks about the way Josie has made her feel over the years and in these past 48 hours. When Hope told Josie about her argument with Landon, she took everything into consideration and understood where Hope was coming from. Josie has never made her feel like she wasn’t good enough or as if she was this big bad monster so many feared she would become. Josie saw the side of her father it seemed only Hope and a few other people thought was possible. She didn’t see the monster, she just saw Hope’s dad. Josie saw her for more than just her last name, to Josie she was Hope, the hero of her story.

 

But Hope still questioned herself, there were still too many conflicting thoughts in her head for her to make a decision, she needed to wolf out and run. As Hope was nearing the edge of the woods when a familiar voice pulled her from her thoughts.

 

“Hope wait, can you please just stop!” Landon called out to the tribrid.

 

“Please just leave me alone Landon,” Hope almost pleaded to the boy, she had too much on her mind to talk to him right now, she needed to run she needed to clear her mind. She wasn’t ready to have this conversation with him, not right now.

 

“Come on Hope we need to talk.” Landon comments as he finally catches up to her only a few steps behind now.

 

“Landon I said back off okay, please. I need to run right now.” Hope answers still walking towards the woods, she hasn’t looked back at him once during this exchange, but she could tell he was getting frustrated with her.

 

“Seriously Hope, I’m your freaking boyfriend, can you just stop and talk to me!” Landon actually yells at her and this causes Hope to freeze. In that moment, Hope knows exactly what she needs to do, but it doesn’t make this any easier. She shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath as a few stray tears fall down her cheeks. Hope opens her eyes just before she finally turns around to come face to face with Landon. Frustration was written across his face but Hope could see this hurt in his eyes.

 

She knows this isn’t going to go well but she needs to say this, this needs to be done, so as she looks Landon in the eye she tells him softly, “I can’t do this anymore.”

 

Landon just looks a her a little confused, then it hits him and Hope can see his expression change to a combination of shocked and heartbroken. “What? Wait… are you breaking up with me right now?”

 

Hope sighs as her gaze falls to the ground, she wipes away the tear stains from her cheeks before she looks back up to answer him, “Yes Landon I’m breaking up with you.”

 

“I can’t believe this right now,” Landon begins to pace, running his hands thru his hair. Hope can tell he is hurt but then his demeanor and body language completely changes, Landon is tense as he looks back at Hope furious, “it’s because of Roman isn’t it? Do you still have feelings for him?” He shouts his questions at her.

 

“Oh. My. God.” Now it was Hope’s turn to snap, pissed at the boy in front of her for bringing up her ex again, “Landon, this has nothing to do with Roman! Look I may have forgiven him but I’m never going to be able to trust him enough to ever be in a relationship with him again. None of this is about Roman.”

 

Landon scoffs, still in disbelief of this whole situation and not satisfied by Hope’s explanation, “Yeah, sure.” He spits back sarcastically.

 

Hope expected Landon to be upset with her but this took a turn she was not expecting, and now she was fuming. She was so frustrated with him she could feel the magic seeping from her finger tips. Hope stops herself and takes a deep breath trying to compose herself, as mad as she was at the boy in front of her she couldn’t snap. She shuts her eyes as she takes another breath, when she looks back at Landon and notices his frustrated stare, she can’t hold back her words.

 

“No you know what, yes I’m partially breaking up with you because of Roman,” Hope starts clearly infuriated by his comments, “because for some fucking reason you can’t let go of MY past! He is one piece of my life that got me where I am right now and for, I don’t know what reason, you can’t stop bringing it up. So yes Landon we are done because you can’t move on from my past, so why should I give you any part of my present or even my future.”

 

Landon quickly realizes he’s fucked up and tries to defuse the situation a little, “Come on Hope, it’s not like that.”

 

But Hope was not having it, “No? Then what is it Landon? Because every time I’ve asked you to drop the subject you keep bringing it up. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and bad decisions in my life that I regret. Forgiving Roman isn’t one of them and if you are going to judge me for one of the few things I’m okay with, what are you going to do when it’s something I’m not proud of. Are you going to call me a monster? Are you going to make me question everything I’ve ever done? Are you going to push me to make decisions because it’s how you would do it or because it’s what you wish you could do or have?” The tears started to flow again, not from any sort of sadness or grief but from frustration and anger.

 

“Hope, hey come on please. We can figure this out okay, look I promise I’ll do a better job of listening to you and communicating my feelings with you.” Landon begs as he takes a step closer, “I mean once Roman is gone, I promise I won’t ever bring it up again, I mean out of sight out of mind right. I promise we can make this work."

 

It’s Hope’s turn to scoff at the boy, _this is unbelievable._ “No we can’t. This was just the tipping point Landon, I realized now, this was never going to work.”

 

“Hope come on what other possible reason do you have for us not being together, I mean we are perfect for one another. We’ve both been broken and we understand each other, I know you’ve lost people you loved but look I’m a phoenix I’m basically indestructible. Besides this little bump in the road what is there from stopping us from being together forev-“

 

“I don’t love you.”

 

“You…” Landon looks at her like she just punched him in the chest, unable to get the words out.

 

“I don’t love you Landon. I care about you, I know that, but I’m not in love with you.” Hope says calmly and very matter of factly. Silence fills the space between them as she can tell Landon is finally realizing what she just said.

 

“So we’re done?” He asks just above a whisper.

 

“Yeah we’re done.” Hope states as she starts to walk back towards the woods so she could turn. After a few steps however she stops as she looks back at Landon one last time, “I’m sorry Landon.”

 

Then she was gone, disappearing into the woods and leaving Landon alone with his thoughts.

 

—————————————————————————————————————

 

Lizzie and Josie were still seated at their table in the auditorium, it had been about half an hour since the last singer of the night had left the stage, and it had been almost two hours since Hope had left Josie to imagine the worst.

 

The twins had been sitting in silence, Josie just staring off into space as Lizzie stared at her with concern. Lizzie’s gaze shifting towards the doorway every now and then whenever there was movement of someone passing by, praying that one of those people would be Hope.

 

“Jo we should probably head up to bed, come on. Hope will come find you when she’s ready.” Lizzie tells her as she rubs her back comfortingly, trying to get her attention.

 

“Yeah, sure.” Josie answers in a bit of a daze, “Umm actually, I think I’m gonna hangout down here for a few more minutes, okay?” Josie asks looking over at her sister and Lizzie understands she needs the moment to be alone.

 

“Okay I’ll see you upstairs.” Lizzie tells her as she rises from her seat. She stands behind her sister to hug her around her shoulders and gives her a kiss on the top of her head. “Don’t stay down here too long.”

 

As Lizzie heads out the doorway she stops to take one last look back at her sister. Her head had fallen into her hands as her arms rested on the table. Lizzie released a sigh feeling her sisters heartbreak. As she walked the halls towards the staircase her attention is quickly caught by the sudden opening of the front door to find Hope walking in.

 

“HOPE!” Lizzie whisper yelled as she approached the older girl, “Where the hell have you been?! It’s been 2 freaking hours!” The blonde caught Hope off guard as she punched her in the shoulder.

 

“Ow! Lizzie what the-“ Hope starts to defend herself but Lizzie cuts her off.

 

“Where were you?!”

 

“I uh had a lot on my mind and I needed to go for a run.” Hope defends as she rubs her shoulder, “I had some stuff I had to deal with. Have you seen Josie?”

 

“What stuff was so important-Wait.” Lizzie stops herself taking in the expression on Hope’s face, her eyes were a little red and puffy like she had been crying. She had the same look on her face when Lizzie interrupted her argument with Landon last night, “Did, did you break up with Landon?”

 

Hope scratched at the back of her neck, “Yeah, yeah I did.”

 

Before Hope could say anything else Lizzie pulled her into a tight embrace, it took Hope a second to react being caught off guard again by Lizzie’s actions but she welcomed and reciprocated Lizzie’s hug.

 

As the two started to pull away from each other Hope looked up at Lizzie as she asked again, “Lizzie, where’s Josie?”

 

With a sincere smile on her face Lizzie tilted her head to point back down the hallway, “She’s still in the auditorium,” Lizzie looked back at Hope before she added, “waiting for you.”

 

This made Hope’s heart beat a little quicker and her cheeks turn a slight shade of pink. The two gave each other a knowing look, acknowledging they both understood the meaning behind Lizzie’s words. Lizzie smirked at the shorter girl as Hope gave her a nod and started to head towards the auditorium.

 

When Hope made it to the doorway, she quickly notices Josie still sitting where she had originally found her earlier that night. Hope noticed the slight shake in Josie’s body as her face rested in her hands, she was crying and this broke Hope knowing she was probably the cause of this. All she wanted to do was hug her and tell her she was sorry but Hope hesitated, she wasn’t quite sure if that would be enough for the younger girl. Hope honestly hadn’t really thought any of this through, all she could think about was finding Josie and now that she has, she was at a loss for words. Hope just stood there in the doorway staring at Josie when in the corner of her eye she noticed the younger girls guitar sitting next to her. Hope’s thoughts immediately go back to Josie’s performance, to the song she sang for Hope, that’s when Hope got an idea. She shifts her gaze toward the front of the room where the stage was still set up to find, _yes the piano is still in here._

 

Hope quickly and quietly made her way over to the piano, she took a seat and positioned herself to play the first notes. She looked up from the keys back to where Josie was seated, keeping her eyes locked on the younger girl as she started to play. Josie froze at the sudden sound of the piano filling the auditorium, she immediately recognized the tune, after all she did listen to that melody for basically 3 straight hours yesterday. She quickly removed her hands from her face to wipe away the tears, she took a deep breathe before she turned in her seat to face the piano and the musician playing it.

 

Lizzie was right, Hope did come back and she was playing the song Josie fell in love with yesterday morning. There she was, staring right back at Josie with those gorgeous ocean blue eyes and a shy smile on her lips. Josie seemed to relax out of instinct to whenever Hope was around, but this was one of those times her heart liked to do the exact opposite. Her heart rate seemed to spike seeing Hope playing the piano again, playing for her again.

 

Hope tilted her head towards the spot next to her, gesturing for Josie to come sit down. Josie didn’t hesitate or take a moment to question it, she stood up and made her way over to the older girl. Hope’s eyes never left Josie, as her fingers kept playing across the keys. As Josie took her spot next to Hope neither one of them spoke, it didn’t seem necessary as Hope just let the piano speak for her. Josie quickly recognized where Hope was in the song, she moved her hand and let it rest on the keys for the first notes Hope had taught her to play. Hope’s smile grew a little wider seeing that look of recognition on Josie’s face as she moved her hand onto the ivory keys, her gaze never leaving Josie’s face until she hears her start to play along with her. Hope let her eyes shut as she continued to play with Josie by her side, listening to the melody of her favorite song being played how she always thought was best.

 

As she did yesterday, when Josie finished with the final note Hope had taught her, she let her hand rest in her lap as she just watched Hope play the rest of the song. Somehow Hope still managed to amaze her, still playing the keys with such familiarity Josie is pretty sure Hope could play this song in her sleep. 

 

As Hope played the final notes of the song, she opened her eyes once again and turned her head towards the younger girl. Her eyes never left Josie’s as she let her hands slip from the keys into her lap. Just like yesterday morning at the old mill, Josie’s breathe gets caught in her throat when she realizes how close they are once again.

 

For the first time that night Hope’s gaze falls down to her hands as she weakly whispers, “I’m so sorry for running out earlier.”

 

Josie can hear the regret in Hope’s voice, she leans forward and pulls Hope into a hug, wrapping her arms around the older girls neck. Josie pulls Hope into her as she whispers in her ear, “It’s okay,”and gives her a gentle squeeze.

 

This gets a small smile out of Hope as she shuts her eyes letting herself sink into Josie’s embrace, her arms snaking around the younger girls waist. Hope nuzzles her face into Josie’s neck as she whispers back, “You were amazing by the way. Just like I told you you would be.”

 

Josie can feel her cheeks getting red again and her own smile getting a little wider as she answered, “Thank you.” The two remained in this position for a few moments, just enjoying the others presence but Hope knew this couldn’t last forever they needed to talk.

 

So Hope speaks up and asks Josie, “Did you mean it, did you mean what you sang in that song tonight?”

 

This catches Josie a little off guard, she figured Hope would understand the meaning behind her song choice but she wasn’t quite sure if the older girl would want to talk about it all so soon. Josie takes a breath as she pulls away from Hope and shifts around on the bench, throwing her left leg over onto the other side so her body was fully facing Hope. She raises her hands and places them on the sides of Hope’s face. She looks Hope in the eyes and decides right then and there she’s going to tell the older girl everything, she was going to lay everything on the line.

 

“I meant every word. Hope, I’m pretty sure you stole me heart that first day you walked into this school. Every time I look at you or whenever I’m around you I feel safe, I feel like I’m that dorky tween again, back when everything was simple and I didn’t feel so broken. You make me feel something no one else ever has before.” Josie takes another breath, “Hope you are the one person that has ever made me want to be selfish.”

 

Hope looked at Josie a little confused by her words not quite sure what Josie meant, and Josie could tell as she let out a small chuckle at the older girls confusion. Josie tucks a few stray hairs behind Hope’s ear as she lets her hand drop back into her lap.

 

“I know I’ve always put everyone’s needs before my own, I’ve done so many things because it would make others happy, not necessarily thinking if it would make me happy as well. When it comes to you, I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I wanted you so badly when we were younger that I was terrified of losing you to my sister. I took a stupid risk that in the end backfired but that was one of the most selfish things I’ve ever done. You Hope Mikaelson, are the one person I’ve wanted the most and I’m pretty sure I’ve known that for awhile but yesterday made everything so much more clear.”

 

Josie pauses and takes a moment to just look at this beautiful girl in front of her as she took in Josie’s words. Josie sighs as she thinks about what she was doing, she’s never done anything like this for her own gain before. She was really about to try and get Hope and Landon to break up, but sitting here in this moment she realized she didn’t care, she wanted Hope more than anything, Landon be damned. She took Hope’s right hand with her own and started to play with it as she spoke again.

 

“And look I know you are with Landon but I’m gonna be selfish right now and tell you, he doesn’t deserve you, he doesn’t deserve you if he is going to hurt you like he has the past few days. If you were mine I promise you, I’d never let anyone hurt you, myself included. You’ve protected everyone at this school and I know you are the strongest person I know, but you deserve to have someone who wants to protect you too. You deserve someone who helps build you up, someone who helps you shut out the ignorant words of stupid people who don’t know who you really are. Someone who isn’t afraid with what comes with your last name,” Josie pauses as she stops playing with Hope’s hand making sure the older girls attention was fully on her and the words she was about to say. When Hope meets her gaze again Josie continues. “You deserve someone who would want to take your last name and proudly say they are yours. Please just give me a chance to be that person for you.”

 

Josie finally stops and takes a breathe, she pauses for a moment but she wants to say some much more. She wants to tell Hope how badly she wants to kiss her right now and how she wants to be that person she talks to her aunts about when they call to check up on her. Josie wants to be Hope’s everything like Hope has become hers.

 

The silence between the two of them was unsettling for Josie and fear started to creep in _. Did I just fuck this up? Oh god I crossed the line didn’t I? Hope’s never going to speak to me again._ It felt like an eternity to Josie, but in reality it had literally been 3 seconds since she stopped talking. She was so consumed by her thoughts she hadn’t noticed the smirk that formed on Hope’s face. It wasn’t until she felt the older girls hand under her chin lifting her head up, did Josie come back to reality. Her eyes meeting those gorgeous blue eyes once again causing Josie to sigh into Hope’s touch. They are only inches apart and both girls know it, as their gazes flicker from the others eyes down to their lips. Before Josie can say anything else Hope leans forward and finally connects their lips together. Without hesitation Josie returns the kiss with everything she has, her hands immediately finding their way to the back of Hope’s neck and into her hair pulling her closer to Josie. The kiss is filled with passion, the two of them putting all their emotions into this simple act.

 

Hope’s hands fall to Josie’s waist, the kiss was getting heated and Hope needed more. In one smooth motion Hope pulls Josie even closer to her, never breaking the kiss, Hope’s left hand falling from Josie’s waist to under her left leg so she could lift her over to sit on the tribrid’s lap. Hope’s hands wandered from Josie’s thighs up to her ass, causing the younger girl to mentally curse at herself for wearing jeans right now instead of one of her school skirts. Josie’s whole body felt like it on fire and her head was starting to spin, she was almost in a daze from how amazing it felt to have Hope’s lips against her own and her hands on her body. As Hope’s hands found Josie’s ass the older girl smiled into their kiss as she squeezed and pulled Josie even closer if that was even possible. This caused a small gasp and moan to escape Josie’s lips and it gave Hope easy access for her tongue to meet Josie’s. The two battled for dominance but in this moment Hope did not care at all if she lost to Josie, she would gladly lose to Josie forever if it felt this good. The kiss started to get rough and desperate, like they had to show the other how badly they needed this, how badly they needed the other. Josie pulled Hope closer to her as her fingers tangled into the older girls hair and Hope’s hands found their way under Josie’s shirt where her nails scraped against the soft skin of Josie’s lower back. The combination of both girls actions caused chills to run down both of their spins and the need for oxygen finally caused the two to separate and break their kiss.

 

They rested their foreheads against each others as they tried to catch their breathes. Josie’s hands fell to Hope’s shoulders as she tried to compose herself, her chest rising and falling as if she just ran a marathon. Hope’s hands moved back to Josie’s waste but Hope kept her hands under Josie’s shirt, not wanting to lose the feeling of Josie’s soft skin under her fingertips. The two stayed like this for a few more moments, eyes still shut trying to catch their breathes, Hope’s thumbs now making small circles on Josie’s skin.

 

As Josie finally starts to come down from her high, her mind starts to race with questions,“What was that for?” Josie asks still a little breathless from their mini make out session and a shy smile on her lips.

 

“I heard you Josie, I heard everything you were trying to say in that song.” Hope answers sincerely, causing both girls to finally open their eyes, Josie found her looking up at the younger girl with pure love in her eyes.

 

“You did?” Josie asks a little shocked but not necessarily surprised.

 

“Yeah I did, I think I’ve always heard you…” Hope starts raising her right hand to Josie’s face, pushing the loose hairs out of her face so she can see her clearly. “I just think with everything that has happened in my life these past few years, I started tuning everything out but I couldn’t do that with you. I’ve always heard you Jo, it just took me a minute to fully understand what you were trying to say.”

 

Josie was ready to lean in for another kiss, but she stops herself when she remembers the one thing standing in their way, “What about Landon?”

 

A shy smile makes its way onto Hope’s lips, “About that.” Hope starts causing Josie to pull away from her to get a better look at her face, Josie wanting to find any clues as to what the older girl was about to say. “I broke up with him, before I came to find you. When I ran out of here my mind was spinning and I was just trying to process everything you said. I was trying to sort out my feelings for you and for him, he ended up following me outside trying to get the two of us to talk. Then I don’t know it all just sort of clicked, I realized I don’t love Landon, I care about him just not as much as I do for you.”

 

Josie’s smile went wide from Hope’s words, she moved her hands from the older girls shoulders to her neck as she pulled her in for another deep kiss. As they pulled apart Josie had this look of realization on her face as she nudges Hope’s shoulder, “So I didn’t actually have to do this whole pouring out my heart to you speech did I?”

 

Hope had to chuckle at Josie’s reaction, “Ha ha well technically no, I realized I would do anything to be with you Josie, I just wasn’t 100% sure if you would want this too. So you know it was nice to actually hear you say you wanted me too.”

 

“Uh huh, sure.” Josie replied a bit sarcastically teasing the older girl, as she played with the hairs on the nape of Hope’s neck. They two just looked at each other lovingly again for another moment until Josie breaks the silence.

 

“And what about this,” Josie starts as she gestures behind her to the piano, “why’d you play that song again for me? You could have just come up and talked to me.”

 

“Well if I remember correctly, you did ask me to play it again,” Hope answered giving her a knowing look referencing back to Josie’s performance earlier that night. “So I wanted to play it for you but if I’m being honest I don’t think I ever want to play this again unless you are sitting right next to me playing it with me.”

 

Josie just looks at Hope in awe, how was it possible this girl could make her feel so loved, so safe, so special like she was the most important person in the world. Josie’s smile was probably the widest it had been all night as she leaned in to capture Hope’s lips in another sweat kiss. As they pulled away again Josie whispered, “I guess you’ll have to teach me the rest of the song then.”

 

Hope smiles back at her, “I guess you’re right.” Hope leans back in for another quick kiss and as she pulls away she rests her forehead against Josie’s as she softly asks, “Want to get started now?”

 

Josie let’s out a small chuckle, “I think we can wait until tomorrow,” she states as she brings her hands to the sides of Hope’s face, running her thumbs against her cheeks. “There is something else I’d much rather be doing right now.” Josie adds with confidence in her voice, a smirk on her lips and this look in her eyes that makes Hope’s heart flutter.

 

“Oh yeah?” Hope asked with her damn signature Mikaelson smirk plastered across her face as she looked up at the girl still sitting in her lap. Hope leaned in again stopping just before her lips made contact ghosting over Josie’s, waiting for the younger girls response.

 

Josie smiled once again as she gave a quick nod. “Yeah” Josie answered sealing it with a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap, what do you all think? I hope you all enjoyed it!
> 
> Thank you all so much again for checking out this story and my other stories on here. I really appreciate all the kudos and comments!
> 
> If you guys have any story requests or ideas please leave me a comment, thank you all again.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright what did you all think? Thank you all again for reading and hopefully I'll be updating soon!


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